Laverne Cox Is Turning Transgender Lawyer For Legal Drama Doubt

Laverne Cox made a massive impact in Orange Is The New Black, resulting in her becoming a bona fide star and being the first transgender person to make the cover of Time magazine and the first to receive an Emmy nomination. She has helped frame the zeitgeist at a time when trans* issues have never been so talked about.

The fact is though, that as successful as Orange Is The New Black has been, it is only available on Netflix and so hasn’t reached the sort of audience a major network show can. She may be remedying that though as she’s taking a major role in the pilot for a potential CBS called Doubt.

Variety reports that show will follow ‘a yet-to-be-cast attorney who gets romantically involved with one of her clients who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime’. Cox meanwhile will be will Cameron Wirth, a Ivy League-educated lawyer who’s both competitive and compassionate. Described as fierce and funny, Cameron’s own experience with injustice as result of being a trans* woman causes her to fight even harder for all of her clients.

Of course getting a pilot order isn’t a guarantee the show will end up on television, but Grey’s Anatomy producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan who are behind the show have definitely made a smart move hiring Cox.